We just decided to cancel our Mikano fine dining reservation and changing it to have loud dinner with lots of caparinha and sangria for our second anniversary dinner.

After two years, he still makes me laugh everyday. When we share weird jokes before bed. Or when he laughs at me for being clumsy. All the shoulders on bad days. Surprise muffins. Before dinner arguments. Mid dinner arguments. Always making up after.

This is the silliest relationship I've ever been in my life.But it's also the most perfect--because I am a closet weirdo.

I thought make up was simple. Just powder, some blush and eyeliner to open the mono almond eyes up. I was wrong.As I grew up I realised that much needed to be taken care of. Like your skin. Or how your pores will look like... or are the colors pigmented enough? Will they stay? Since I started 9-5 job, I am out of house with makeup more than 8-9 hours a day for work. But I don't want to look like I cake on makeup either. No makeup look is the aim.

Those are what I need to achieve the less makeup look... actually quite some layers going on there; to make sure they stick for the whole day ya see. It's the hydration cream, the primer, BB cream and then concealer first. And then the powder. And then the mosaic powder to even out my skin tone. And the bronzer+blush combo. The eyeliner (important) and the most important; the eyebrow kit. I feel naked and blind and old and sad and scary without the drawn eyebrows.

I went to Clevedon Farmers Market last weekend and came home with bags full of fresh organic vegetables. A week's supply, I can say. On top of that I went to Farro Fresh and discovered their vegetables and what not sale... I managed to snatch a box of chicken thighs on specials without any idea what to do with it.

Today I came home feeling like pie. So pie it was for dinner, with whatever vegetables in hand we have for the filling.

I cooked chicken with mushrooms, onion, garlic, carrots and potatoes. Use butter. Season with salt and plenty of cracked black pepper. A dash of wine if you like. A dash of milk. Water. When everything is cooked I thicken the mixture with cheat 'roux' made of chicken stock and flour. Worchesthire sauce for the extra oomph. I cheated with store bought pastry, egg washed it, decorated the top with sprinkles of rubbed rosemary and baked it until golden for 35 minutes on 160ºC.

It was scrumptious. My Kiwi partner claimed he had been eating pie since he was 3; and this is probably one of the best he'd eaten. I'm flattered.

My absolute favorite go-to sweet and savory beef stir fry. On days I hesitate to cook, preparing this is a whim and perfect with a bowl of hot steamed jasmine rice. There's no shortage of ingredients you can toss in this simple but hearty stir fry, but the way I make it follows that of the Indonesian-Chinese style version of it; with minimal ingredients that enhances the kecap manis (dark sweet soy sauce) and good quality beef flavor. We call it Sapi Lada Hitam, and it's one of the most famous Chinese restaurant dishes back home.

For beef stir fries, I love buying beef schnitzel cuts in the supermarket because they're already prepared by the butcher to be thin and tender; but prior to prepping I always tenderise the meat even more. If you're fancy and resourceful I bet you have meat tenderiser at home, but if you're like me you can use your kitchen pestle!

Prepare the beef by tenderising and cutting them to the size of your liking. I like to cut them around 2cmx2cm size. Marinate with 1:2:2 of soy sauce, oyster sauce and kecap manis, generous pinch of black pepper and cornflour. Set aside for at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok, sautee chopped garlic and onion until fragrant. Add the beef with the marinade sauce in. Keep stirring until they change color. Add in your crunchy greens (my favorite is gai lan but if there's no Asian grocer around, broccoli or broccolini will suit you all good because they're similar kind of veges anyway!) and chopped capsicum. Splash with Chinese rice wine and maybe hot water if you want extra sauce on yours. Adjust taste with black pepper, salt and more sauces if you wish.

Definitely a super easy house favorite at the moment... not to mention cheap!

I was chilling with Mike at home a couple of nights ago when gifts topic got brought up. He told me he was getting me something special for our anniversary end of this month. And that it had arrived early! I have a massively annoying curiosity nature; I kept nagging him until he caved in and gave me the gift early! Well I didn't want that... all I wanted was A CLUE. But he insisted that he must give me, and that a clue won't work on this gift.

And it didn't of course.I was jawdropping in disbelief.

I've been wanting a pair since I turned 19. I mean which girl doesn't?It's THE one pair of shoes you must have in your life. And then there's the Choos, and the Blahniks... but Louboutin's Pigalle is a classic. But no, I was not willing to fork out a fortune for a pair of shoes that is so high it's unlikely I would wear it daily.

So I kept musing and musing as years gone by, admiring every pictures I see on the Internet or in the magazine. Imagining having a pair... or more, maybe?

Anyway I still can't believe I own a pair of these beauty!Mike bought it from the US because New Zealand is sad and currently has no stores selling them officially or brand new, even. And you just do not trust those people on TradeMe for more than $500 secondhand pair of luxury goods.

Shoes comes with dustbag and spare heel-end that comes with its own mini pouch... How cute!I've been wearing the shoes at home to loosen the edges (because I come with a wide feet package, which sucks most of the time, but oh well) so I can wear them when they're fully mine after our anniversary day. Also need to get those sole protectors to protect the sexy reds from scratching.

I feel so lucky and excited I can't even contain my happiness! These are to die for.

Thank you babe, for knowing what I have been secretly wanting and then secretly getting it for me...

Two weekends ago I felt so bored that I found the need to bake (trust me it doesn't strike me very often). My friend Stef mentioned on Facebook chat that she was baking Smitten Kitchen's Apple Cake. Gone was my craving for marble cupcakes; decided to give this one a go.

It was so good that I baked another batch last weekend, with minor adjustments. I don't have bundt tin anyway so I used big round cake tin for the first batch. Found this super long to bake so made two loaves of cake out of that one recipe the second time. Also am an apple freak. More apple, more cinnamon, and omitted walnuts just because they're expensive and not really matter.